On the 4/26/23 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:
Poet and translator Florencia Milito joins the show to talk about her grandmother’s poetry carrying her through political turmoil, finding a literary community in San Francisco, and representing her values online. She shares a poem from her most recent poetry collection Ituzaingó: Exiles and Reveries / exilios y ensueños. We then hear asynchronously from upcoming Poetry Night featured poet Pam Houston about her crazy covid armageddon book tour. Finally, accordionist and organizer Jared Johnson phones in to discuss his musical journey as a busker and his advocacy work for the Sacramento unhoused.
Florencia Milito is a bilingual poet whose work has appeared in numerous journalsZYZZYVA, Indiana Review, Catamaran, Diálogo, 92nd Street Y, Quiet Lightning, Ninth Letter, Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century USA, Zócalo Public Square, womenvoicesforchange.org, GUEST, and This Wandering State: Poems from Alta, among others. A Hedgebrook and Community of Writers alumna and San Francisco Writers Grotto and CantoMundo fellow, her writing has been influenced by her early experience fleeing Argentina’s 1976 coup, subsequent childhood in Venezuela, and immigration to the United States at the age of nine. In 2011, she was a reader at the Festival Internacional de Poesía de Rosario. In 2020, she read virtually at the 8th Winter Warmer Poetry Festival in Cork, Ireland. Her bilingual poem “Song of Transformation” was featured in the UC Berkeley Arts Research Center's Fall 2021 Flash Reading Series. Her chapbook Ituzaingó: Exiles and Reveries was a finalist for the Gold Line Press Poetry Chapbook Competition in 2018. Her bilingual collection Ituzaingó: Exiles and Reveries / exilios y ensueños, based on the earlier chapbook, was published in 2021 by Nomadic Press and reviewed by Urayoán Noel in 'La Treintena' 2021: 30+ Books & Chapbooks of Latinx Poetry.
Florencia is also a creative writing and composition educator, translator, and mother. She has a BA from Cornell University, an MA in English from the University Colorado, and pursued studies in Writing Pedagogy, Composition/Rhetoric, and Reading Theory at San Francisco State University. Last summer, her family relocated to Davis, California from the Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco.
Pam Houston is the author of the memoir Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, as well as two novels, two collections of short stories, and a collection of essays, all published by W.W. Norton. Her stories have been selected for volumes of The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Short Stories of the Century among other anthologies. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA Award for contemporary fiction, the Evil Companions Literary Award and several teaching awards. She teaches in the Low Rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, is Professor of English at UC Davis, and co-founder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers.
Jared Johnson can be found busking on the corner of 3rd and E or on Instagram at jay_eldon_art.
Pam Houston will read with Shayne Langford at the Poetry Night Reading Series on Thursday, May 4th.
Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, visit his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com and follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andyojones.